Hymn to Uṣas
Rigveda VII.76 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 7 of the Rigveda, one of the 1,028 hymns organized within the ten books of the oldest Veda. The Rigveda was composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in Vedic Sanskrit and preserved through oral transmission across millennia.
This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
Behold! The Dawn comes forth, resplendent and most fair. She driveth back the darkness with her rays of light. The eyes of all the world do open; the hearts of living creatures stir with joy. O Uṣas, thou art ever young, thou art ever beautiful, thou art ever clothed in gold.
The night doth flee before thee as a coward before the warrior. The stars fade away like lamps that are extinguished. The moon, so mighty in the dark hours, doth yield its throne. And lo, the sky beginneth to blush with the color of ripe fruit, deepening from green to purple to red.
Thou raisest up the cattle from their rest. The birds awaken and begin to sing their morning songs. The priest arises from his bed and kindleth the sacred fire. All over the earth, in cities and villages, in forests and upon the mountains, thy coming is greeted with joy.
Yet even as thou art celebrated, so too art thou brought low by time. Day after day thou art born anew; night after night thou dost disappear into the realm of the gods. Thy golden robes are donned each morning; thy light is quenched each evening. Never once hast thou faltered; never once hast thou failed to come.
We mortals, O Uṣas, are not like thee. We grow old; we grow weak; our beauty fadeth away. But thou—thou remainest eternally young. What is thy secret? What doth keep thee so fair, so strong, so full of light?
Perhaps it is because thou art divine, and we are but mortal. Yet still we wonder at the mystery of it all. Thou hast been ancient since the beginning of time, yet thou art forever young. Thou hast journeyed through countless ages, yet thy feet do not grow weary.
Come, O Uṣas! Come and grant us some small portion of thy beauty and thy strength. Let our youth be renewed each day, even as thy light is renewed. Let our hearts be as bright as thy rays; let our courage be as steady as thy march across the sky.
Colophon
This hymn is drawn from the Śākala recension of the Rigveda, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE. This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, translated independently from the Sanskrit. Reference translations consulted during original translation are to be documented during audit.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: ṛgveda VII.76
Sanskrit source text from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input). Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
ud u jyotir amṛtaṁ viśvajanyaṁ viśvānaraḥ savitā devo aśret |
kratvā devānām ajaniṣṭa cakṣur āvir akar bhuvanaṁ viśvam uṣāḥ || 1 ||
pra me panthā devayānā adṛśrann amardhanto vasubhir iṣkṛtāsaḥ |
abhūd u ketur uṣasaḥ purastāt pratīcy āgād adhi harmyebhyaḥ || 2 ||
tānīd ahāni bahulāny āsan yā prācīnam uditā sūryasya |
yataḥ pari jāra ivācaranty uṣo dadṛkṣe na punar yatīva || 3 ||
ta id devānāṁ sadhamāda āsann ṛtāvānaḥ kavayaḥ pūrvyāsaḥ |
gūḻhaṁ jyotiḥ pitaro anv avindan satyamantrā ajanayann uṣāsam || 4 ||
samāna ūrve adhi saṁgatāsaḥ saṁ jānate na yatante mithas te |
te devānāṁ na minanti vratāny amardhanto vasubhir yādamānāḥ || 5 ||
prati tvā stomair īḻate vasiṣṭhā uṣarbudhaḥ subhage tuṣṭuvāṁsaḥ |
gavāṁ netrī vājapatnī na ucchoṣaḥ sujāte prathamā jarasva || 6 ||
eṣā netrī rādhasaḥ sūnṛtānām uṣā ucchantī ribhyate vasiṣṭhaiḥ |
dīrghaśrutaṁ rayim asme dadhānā yūyam pāta svastibhiḥ sadā naḥ || 7 ||
Source Colophon
Sanskrit text of the Rigveda, Śākala recension. The standard scholarly edition is the Bombay Oriental (Vishva Bandhu, 5 vols., 1963–66). IAST transliteration available from GRETIL (Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages) and Vedaweb (University of Cologne). Both sources are open access. IAST transliteration from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
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